Give or Take, Part 1

Well, thank you again, Mr. Lindsley. I wanted to also, before I completely forgot during the announcement section, I apologize, I wanted to say thank you very much for all of your prayers recently with my recent surgery and the recovery from that. We finally have started to turn a corner that actually feels, I feel human again in the morning rather than getting up and having pain and other things.

We had a fantastic work party, Last Sabbath, or not Last Sabbath, but the Sunday after the Sabbath down in Canyonville, down at the home of Jeanette Baker, we did some woodcutting. They had these three giant log decks. I thought, well, I don't know what I'm going to be able to do.

I'm going to go down there. I'm going to have bucket loads of moral support, but I mean, I can't lift anything. I'm on a lifting restriction for six weeks. They found something for me to do, though. I got to run the hydraulic splitter. So my entire day consisted of... And I felt so bad because these people all around me, I mean, they're just absolutely busting it.

We went through and probably cut and bucked and split and sacked probably six, maybe even seven, cords by the time it was all done. We just went through a bunch of these he's in Madrone and got them all set up for firewood.

But my shoulder was sure sore when it was all... I felt so bad. These guys are throwing logs around in here. I'm going, bzzzzz, bzzzzz. I did split a lot of wood, though, with that hydraulic splitter. But I do appreciate the prayers. Thank you guys very, very much. You know, occasionally, as you're developing a message, you realize early on in the process that you've bitten off a lot more than you can chew in the allotted time that you have. I do everything in my power. Many of you guys know this. I keep my sermon messages between about 45 and 50 minutes.

I find that myself, that's about my limit from a standpoint of being able to stay focused. I'm a little squirrel, ADHD a little bit in that way. But occasionally, I'll go a little longer than that if I have to in order to finish something up. But if it's going to be significantly longer than that over about an hour, I try to make it into a two-parter, which is the reality of this particular message.

So this particular message, I found, is going to be part one. There will be a part two coming shortly. Because as I started digging into it and started putting it together, I quickly realized there was no way that we were going to get this one concluded in 45 to 50 minutes. It was going to be a 90-minute or more kind of thing.

So this will be a two-parter. The first of them today is going to lay out the principle. It's going to lay out the concept, and it's going to give us some biblical examples of this attitude in action, whereas the second message is going to focus a lot more on tangible takeaway, things that we can legitimately put into play in our lives and implement in our own. So with this message, we're going to set the stage. I apologize that we're not going to entirely land the plane today, but I promise you we'll land the plane the next time.

So to begin with today, to set that stage, I'd like to ask you all a quick question. How many of you have ever worked with someone that received a big promotion? How many of you have ever worked with somebody who's received a big promotion, gone from being one of the regular workers and moved to the dark side?

Management, right? Or in our case with teaching, they move into administration, right? They become a principal or they become a vice principal or something like that. Notice, not you! Nope, no, you got passed over. The other guy got it. The other guy got it. You know the one that's always nodding their head when the big boss talks, the one who laughs at all their jokes, the one who's always taking credit for the work that you guys do, the one that complements the boss on their perfectly creased pants, the one that's always trying to make everything about them.

You know, that guy. Now, realistically, we probably don't all work with people like that, but I think you can probably think of a couple people that somewhat fit that bill that you've had experience with in the past. If you've experienced the situation in the workplace, how often does it end well? Not all that often.

Oftentimes, it doesn't end well. I've had the opportunity to experience this on a handful of situations where, like I said, we've had a fellow teacher kind of join the dark side and go into administration, so to speak. And no matter what you do, even if the person's not the person that I just described, no matter what, it still is awkward. It's still awkward. Suddenly, somebody who was, you know, one of the people in the same trenches you, so to speak, is now calling the shots, is now making things a little bit different. It changes the dynamics of the workplace significantly. They're put into this position of authority over who they once worked with.

They get a little bit of power, they get a little bit of fame, and things get awkward. They do. And sometimes we'll say to one another, colloquially? That's how you say that. Colloquially. Sometimes we'll say to each other, we'll say, boy, he should let the power go to his head. Have you ever heard that phrase before, or used that phrase before? Boy, he should let the power go to their head. Which, you know, believe it or not, actually isn't far from the truth.

It's actually not far from the truth. Numerous studies have tried to kind of crack this seemingly anecdotal evidence in this observation that people who ascend to positions of power and authority often lose touch with the quote-unquote little people, so to speak. So they've tried to kind of crack this anecdotal observation with hard scientific evidence, and they've found some pretty incredible things. One study actually concluded that individuals that assume positions of authority and power actually tend to be less capable of expressing empathy towards other people.

Now, there's a part of the brain that we refer to as the mirror sensor. It's a mirror system, mirror neurons. And this is like if you've ever had a situation where you've seen someone stub their toe, and you go, oh! It's that mirror sensor, it's the mirror neuron. It's almost like it happened to you. It didn't, really, but you saw it happen. Or you ever noticed in conversation, you're talking to somebody and they go ahead and put their hands on your hips, and you realize pretty soon, why are my hands on my hips?

Or they cross their arms, why did I just cross my arms? It's your mirror sensor, it's your mirror neurons. And what it does is it kind of helps you to connect with the person that you're speaking with. Scientists are beginning to realize that these mirror neurons actually help us to have empathy for other people. Positions of power and authority, according to this research, inhibit that system. They make it harder for someone to have empathy, because they don't really identify as one of them anymore.

They find themselves in a different place, and as a result, their ability to effectively lead is really inhibited. Because these researchers concluded that the reason that people can be effective leaders is because of their ability to adjust to the team that they're leading and really understand where their employees are coming from. That way they can motivate them and they can work with them better and can strengthen the team as a whole. Another study summarized most succinctly in an article from the Daily Mail, which is an online British newspaper, explains a study done by Swiss scientists, which adds even another dimension to the results. It says, power really does go to your head.

Giving people a taste of authority can corrupt even honest members of a group. It says scientists in Switzerland asked volunteers to play the dictator game, end quote. And in the game, people were given complete control over deciding pay. They had the choice of awarding less to the group, but more to themselves. So if you award less to everybody else, you walk away with more. Now, they weren't playing for monopoly money. This was real money. People walked out of here with a pocket full of cash when this was all said and done.

People rated as less honest at first exhibited more corrupt behavior. You might expect that, right? People that go in, yeah, I'd lie, cheat, and steal to get ahead. Well, of course I'm going to end up pocketing a bunch of money, and nobody else is going away with it. But over time, those who scored high on honesty at the beginning also behaved badly. It says, scientists have shown that even the most noble lose sight of their values when they're handed the right to govern. A series of experiments found that once honest people had tasted power, they couldn't resist rewarding themselves at the expense of others.

So after undergoing psychological testing to measure individual differences, including honesty, and I don't know what the tests look like to determine that, but this is what they're reporting. The volunteers played the dictator game. In the game, they were given complete control over deciding payouts to themselves and to their followers. The leaders had the choice of making pro- or anti-social decisions, the latter resulting in awarding less money to the group, but more to the leader's own earnings.

Findings showed that those rated as less honest at first exhibited more corrupt behavior, but over time, even those who initially scored high on honesty scales were not shielded from the corruptive effects of power. In fact, one of the researchers had the following to say. His name is Antonakis, his last name. In a way, power to leaders is what the taste of blood is to a dog.

Once they get the taste of it, they can't stop. The more followers they have, the more corrupt they become. Interestingly enough, guys, I hate to tell you this, I'm sorry, says the participants were also given saliva tests which showed anti-social decisions were highest among those with the highest levels of testosterone. Sorry, guys.

The last thing that he says in conclusion of this article, he says, based on our research and its conclusion, or our conclusions, we think strong governance mechanisms and strong institutions are the key to keeping leaders in check. He wants to ensure that they're able to keep that from happening. You know, if it turns out you don't feel empathy towards your employees, it makes it a lot easier to reward yourself in lieu of rewarding them.

Which, again, test after test after test showed this in this case. Lord Acton once said that power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely. You know, interestingly enough, for as many stories as you hear about horrible, horrible bosses, everybody's got a bad boss story. Everybody seems to have a bad boss story. You talk to somebody, oh, I remember this one time, my boss, everybody's got a bad boss story. But you know as many horror stories as there are, as many horror stories as there are, you hear a number of horror stories that are the exact opposite.

You hear about the incredible, amazing, this unbelievably giving and understanding boss who goes the extra mile for their employees. I mean, they're fewer and farther between than the Boss and Villa stories, but they're there. They're out there. There's actually a book written by a guy named Adam Grant.

He's with the Wharton School of Business. It contains some really interesting findings. He spent ten years studying a variety of businesses as well as the U.S. Air Force. And his ultimate goal was to try to understand how individuals approach business interactions. Not the business itself, not the actual, like, what do you sell and all that, but how do you interact with customers?

How do you interact with employees? How do you interact with clients? I don't want to get into the research too terribly deeply. The title of the book is Give and Take, A Revolutionary Approach to Success. I'm going to summarize the findings here. He categorized employees in the workplace into three different categories of people, essentially.

He defined givers, takers, and what he termed matchers. He said they boiled down into one of three categories, givers, takers, or matchers. Givers approach every business interaction with the question of, what can I provide the other person? How can I satisfy whatever their needs are? They're not interested in credit. They're not interested in additional compensation. They seek to bring out the most in other people due to their attitude and due to their work ethic. They give, ultimately, more than they get. If you contrast that with takers, you contrast that with individuals that would classify as takers, these are folks that approach every interaction that they go into thinking of, what can I obtain from this person?

What can I get out of this interaction? How can I benefit from this? What can I do in order to better myself in this interaction? How can I make this work out in my favor? You know, it sounds really aggressive. You think, oh man, those people. You know, sometimes it's self-preservation. How do I make myself look important enough to keep my job? You know, so it's not always aggressive in some ways, but they do take more than they give back.

And the last people are matchers. And matchers are kind of your classic, you scratch my back and I'll scratch your back. We're both going to benefit from this. You do this, I'll do this. It's going to work out good for both of us. They go towards every approach, every interaction, thinking about fairness and reciprocity. His research showed that ultimately the people that he was able to categorize came into these three places, either givers, takers, or matchers. But where it gets really interesting, yeah, that's kind of be that as it may.

Once he defined the categories, he was really interested to find out how individuals who had achieved success sorted out. How did those that found themselves in mid-level management stack up against those that found themselves in upper-level management? Interns versus CEOs, regular employees versus the owner of the organization. His results were actually kind of surprising. Where do you suppose the givers found themselves? People that were only interested in the betterment of the client, the customer. Where do you think they found themselves? Bottom of the barrel. I'm seeing thumbs down in a lot of cases.

Absolute bottom of the corporate hierarchy. They found themselves bottom of the barrel. Very few in middle to upper-level management. The majority just kind of regular employees of the company. And it turns out as you move up the rung, as you move up the rung into levels of management, into what we as society would tend to deem more successful, quote-unquote, the population starts to shift with a number of those individuals in mid- and upper-level management identified as takers. That they're in it kind of for the advancement of their career. And that's not all the case. You know, we are painting with a fairly broad brush here, but the research seemed to indicate the majority were takers.

Where it got really interesting was when you stepped up into the level of board, CEO, CFO, founder of a company. You might expect that these folks are cutthroat. You might expect that they're going to do whatever it takes, when it all costs, to build their business. But Grant's research found the exact opposite. The individuals at the very, very top, majority of them were givers.

The owner, the CEO, members of the board. Now, you could make the argument, too, that they're givers so that the bottom dollar makes money. You want to make sure the client, you know, enjoys the service so that we can patter our pockets with more money. So it may not be entirely altruistic. But they did have high levels of empathy for their employees. They sought ways to serve others' needs over their own.

They attempted as much as possible to be bought into the values of their company to ensure its success. They weren't really in it for the paycheck. These are the ones that are putting in 18 to 20 hour days to ensure that their company survives and that their employees are taken care of. It all came down to givers and takers. And biblically, we see examples of both. I was really intrigued by this concept as we've been going through our chronological reading program this year.

We're almost finished up. We've got just a little bit left to go of the New Testament. We're just about there. But interestingly enough, I noticed a pattern in the individuals that God chose. God called certain individuals to serve Him. And time and time again, many of them mention their lack of qualifications. Many of them mention and basically tell God, God, you've got the wrong guy.

I'm not your guy. I'm not your guy. I can't hardly talk. Or I'm the least of the least of the least of the least. And I'm the least of the least of the least. I can't possibly be the one that you're looking for. I have no leadership skills. Obviously, God chose them for very specific reasons.

But ultimately, some of them handle their newfound authority and power very well, going on to be successful and righteous. Well, don't. Others don't. I thought it would be interesting to explore the number of times that that phrase is stated throughout and explore some of these individuals' examples to get a better understanding of the concept of humility and the concept of pride. And with that study came some very crucial lessons for us in the modern era, especially as we find ourselves out and about in interacting with both members in the church and outside of the church, as we're about our Father's business.

So the title of the message today is Give or Take. Give or Take. And this is, again, part one. We'll explore some more tangible takeaways in part two. But while we're going to examine some positive examples of individuals who dealt with their power in a very godly fashion, we're going to focus mostly today on those that did not. Not because I want to be negative, but because there's a lot more of their examples in Scripture than those who did it very, very well. Those who allowed their power to corrupt them into making poor decisions based on their pride.

And the reason that we want to look at them is so that we can learn what not to do from their examples. Let's start today in the book of 1 Samuel. Let's go over to 1 Samuel. You hear where we're going. You're already guessing who we're talking about. 1 Samuel. And we're going to go into 1 Samuel 9. 1 Samuel 9. We're going to talk first, and we're going to start looking today at Saul. I'm going to start looking at King Saul.

And just prior to this passage, just prior to 1 Samuel 9, we see the setup and the introduction of Saul. He was the son of a mighty man, heads taller than the rest of the people, handsome, 100% grade 18. I mean, if there was a guy who was to be king based on external looks alone, that's him. There's your guy. God tells Samuel he's going to be coming to him, looking for three lost donkeys, and then he's to then go ahead and anoint him king over Israel. We don't get Samuel's thought process. It seems like a strange progression of events, but all right, cool.

We're in. Keep in mind, prior to this, as we start looking at how governmentally things were set up, Israel had been ruled by judges. At this point, though, Israel demanded a king. Israel had been demanding a king. Samuel let him know. God let Samuel know what was going on. Samuel said, look, you don't want a king. They're going to conscript your children. They're going to throw him in the army. They're going to take a portion of your crops.

They're going to put you to work at the fields. It doesn't end well. Israel said, no, we know what we want. We want to be like the nations around us. Give us a king. And God said, okay, all right. You don't want to be holy. You don't want to be set apart. You don't want to be different. I'll give him what you want.

I'll give you what you want. So we see in 1 Samuel 9, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 15. 1 Samuel 9, verse 15, says, Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear the day before Saul came, saying, Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him, commander, over my people Israel, that he may save my people from the hand of the Philistines, for I have looked upon my people, because their cry has come to me.

So when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said to him, There he is, the man of whom I spoke to you, this one shall reign over my people. Then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate, and said, Please tell me, where is the seer's house? Samuel answered Saul, and said, I am the seer. Go up before me to the high place, for you shall eat with me today, and tomorrow I will let you go, and I will tell you all that is in your heart.

Verse 20, But as for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, don't be anxious about them, for they have been found. And on whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on you and on all your father's house? The New Living Translation puts verse 20, I am here to tell you that you and your family are the focus of all Israel's hopes.

Samuel sends him ahead to the feast, essentially tells him, Hey, you're set apart for something special, no pressure, but we're kind of banking on you and your family. So you're going to come up, you're going to eat, and then in verse 21 we see Saul's response. And Saul answered and said, Am I not a benjamite of the smallest of the tribes of Israel and my family, the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak like this to me? Saul tells, what are you talking about? I'm the least of the least of the least. I'm not the one that should be honored.

I'm not the one that should be sitting at the choice, the seat at the table up here at this feast. We see Saul exhibited an incredible amount of humility in this first interaction. In this first interaction he exhibited an incredible amount of humility. He goes up the hill, he feasts with Samuel. Then we see in chapter 10 the anointing of Saul is king. Verse 9 we see specifically he's given a new heart, he's converted, receives God's Holy Spirit. Everything's peachy! Everything's great! Things are wonderful! Except that they're not. Let's go to 1 Samuel 13. 1 Samuel 13.

We see that things were not all peachy, things were not all wonderful. Things kind of went downhill somewhat quickly with Saul. We go to chapter 13, we see war continuing with the Philistines. Things are not going well. Things are not going well. In fact, Israelites are retreating to superior numbers. They're hiding in rocks. They've got officers and soldiers bailing out left and right, taking off and hiding.

Samuel's gone. Everybody's getting killed. I don't know what to do here as Saul. He's just, ahh, what do I do? Samuel said to wait seven whole days and he'll be back. It's the seventh day, he's still not here. Everything's falling apart. We'll pick it up in verse 8 of 1 Samuel 13. 1 Samuel 13 verse 8 said, he waited seven days according to the time set by Samuel. Samuel did not come to Gilgal and the people were scattered from him.

People are bailing out left and right. Samuel hadn't showed up yet. So Saul said, having a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me. Uh-oh. And he offered the burnt offering. Now it happened. As soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, it's usually how it goes, right? Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him that he might greet him.

Samuel said, what have you done? What have you done? Saul said, well, when I saw that the people were scattered from me and that you didn't come within the days appointed and that the Philistines gathered together at Mc Mash, then I said, the Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal and I have not made supplication to the Lord. Therefore I felt compelled and I offered a burnt offering. Verse 13, Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, for now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

Verse 14, but now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. Saul let it go to his head. He put himself as king on the same pedestal as the prophet that God had chosen and he felt he was qualified to offer that burnt offering because of his status as king.

Besides, he couldn't have been expected to wait any longer. People were bailing out all over the place. I'm the king. I have to do something. I have to fix this. I have to fix this. It's my responsibility. Whatever he may have told himself to justify his actions, this was kind of the beginning of the end. This was kind of the beginning of the end. One thing to keep in mind with this, and it's kind of a sobering thing to think about, Saul was chosen by God.

He had a new heart. He would be what we would call converted. He was chosen, very specifically, and God took it away. God took it away. But why? Why did God take it away? Let's go to 1 Samuel 15.

A couple passages forward. 1 Samuel 15. In the middle of what almost seems like Saul's second chance. Almost. Sort of. God gives him the command to strike down all of the Amalekites. Every last one. Man, woman, child, even the animals. For us, that's kind of hard to stomach. It's kind of hard to stomach, but God's got his reasons. He's got his ways. He's got his things. And it was to be punishment for what they did to Israel as they were leaving Egypt. Saul goes to war. He kills the people. Spares the king. Spares the choicest of the animals.

But those that were weak, those that were despised, they went ahead and they destroyed. Now God's upset because Saul didn't follow his directions, and he basically tells Samuel before he goes to meet with Saul, look, we're done. This is it. We're done here. Samuel kind of almost appears to intercede on his behalf that evening, but the next day he does follow God's instructions to go and let Saul know.

He goes to find him, but he's not there. He actually went and set up a monument in his own honor at Carmel, and then he headed to Gilgal. So when Samuel arrives, Saul says, what the Lord has commanded? It's done! I did it. I did it. Samuel says, okay, then what's with all the cows and the sheep making such a racket? I'm hearing an awful lot of bleeding and an awful lot of mooing and whatnot.

What's going on here? Oh, those? Oh, those. Those are the choices of the animals that the Amalekites had. Yeah, we only killed the weak ones. I'm going to go ahead and save these to sacrifice unto God.

You can kind of imagine Samuel's face for a moment. Seriously. Looking at Saul, looking at the animals, looking at Saul and thinking, was something lost in translation? What part of kill everything do you not understand? The command was very specific. So Samuel tells him, well, here's what the Lord says, verse 17 of 1 Samuel 15.

So Samuel said, when you were little in your own eyes, when you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel? Before you got a big head! Before you got a big head! While you were still humble, when you hadn't let your position as king swell your ego. Verse 18, Now the Lord sent you on a mission and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.

Why then, verse 19, did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil and do evil in the sight of the Lord? Why didn't you do what you were told to do? In fact, some translations actually put it as, instead of swoop, pounce on the plunder. You saw all these wonderful things, all these fantastic animals, and you jumped on them. Why did you do that? Saul acted in his own best interest.

He didn't do what he was asked. He was successful in the battle, yet instead of giving the glory to God, he goes ahead and sets up a monument to his own honor. He let the power go to his head. In verse 20, we see a good leadership quality. In verse 20, Saul goes ahead and blames everybody else.

In verse 20, Saul said to Samuel, But I obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission to which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek. I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. Okay. But King Agag... Okay. Verse 21, But the people, the people took of the plunder, the sheath, and the oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.

So Samuel said, Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. Doesn't God desire obedience over burnt offerings and sacrifices? Goes on to say, For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry, because you've rejected the word of the Lord, he also has rejected you from being king.

Saul said to Samuel, and he recognizes at this point that the gig is up, I've sinned, for I've transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people, and I obeyed their voice. Verse 25, Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me, that I may worship the Lord. But Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.

Too little, too late. God at that point had rejected Saul. And again, whether this was a second chance, or this event solidified the decision, or whether it was already made prior to this event, Saul was done. God had chosen someone else. And now, while he continued to lead for some time after these events, he was less than effective as king. You know, he was less than effective as king. David was ultimately chosen, which, again, is another man who I'm the least of the least of the least.

In fact, his dad was like, Put the runt out in the field? You don't want him. He's not king. He's not him. But David was ultimately the one that was chosen, because he was humble. He was a man after God's own heart. He had that level of humility. Saul was king. He was the most powerful man in Israel, and he let it go to his head. He began to think that he'd achieved what he'd achieved through his own power and through his own might.

He set up monuments to him, much like, you know, Mr. Kester mentioned this morning, with this giant image of Nebuchadnezzar setting up monuments in your own honor.

Generally, he kind of felt, as sometimes happens with leaders, that the rules don't really apply to them. We see a similar situation with the example of Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26. The school of 2 Chronicles 26. 2 Chronicles 26. 2 Chronicles 26. We get the example of Uzziah. We get the account of Uzziah in this section. He took the throne at 16, reigned for 52 years, largely did what was right in God's eyes. He learned from a very strong high priest in Zechariah. And really, as long as he sought after God, he had incredible successes. Incredible successes, as long as his focus was in the right place. In fact, the early parts of 2 Chronicles 26 detail all these accomplishments, all these things that came from his obedience to God and God's ultimate blessing from that obedience. When we get to verse 16, though, we see there's one instance in his life where he allowed his pride to get the best of him. 2 Chronicles 26 and verse 16, we see him allow his pride to get the best of him. Verse 16 says, But when he was strong, when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. For he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. And this passage kind of implies that these sorts of things didn't happen when Uzziah remained humble. It was when he became strong in his own eyes that he did corruptly, that he trespassed, when he began to rely upon his own strength and upon his own power. Verse 17, So as Uriah the priest went in after him, and with him were eighty priests of the Lord, valiant men. I love this passage. I love this passage. Eighty-one men standing up to the king, O no you do not, not in here, not your place. And they withstood King Uzziah, and they said to him, it is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the son of Aaron, who were consecrated to burn incense. This is not your place. Get out of the sanctuary, for you trespass. You shall have no honor from the Lord God. In verse 19 we see Uzziah's response, oh okay, you're right, I shouldn't be... Oh, no, that's not what it says. And Uzziah became furious. He became furious. And he had a censor in his hand to burn incense.

And while he was angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead, before the priests, in the house of the Lord, beside the incense altar. And as Uriah, the chief priest, and all the priests looked at him, and there on his forehead he was lepros. So they thrust him out of that place. Indeed, he also hurried to get out, because the Lord had struck him. It didn't take much to get him out after that. It's like, wait, what? Oh, I've got to go. I'm lepros. But King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He dwelt in an isolated house, because he was a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the Lord. And then Jotham his son was over the king's house, judging the people of the land. Eighty-one priests withstood him, stood against the king of Israel, the most powerful man in the country, and said, this is not your job. This is not your place. You're overstepping your boundaries. There are some things that even you as king are unable to perform. And it made Uzziah angry to be confronted.

How would someone dare call me out? I'm the king. They'd even think to tell the king of Israel that he's not allowed to offer. I'm the king. Who do they think they are?

When he was strong, his heart was lifted up. He became full of pride. He started to think that all of the accomplishments and all the things that God had blessed the nation of Israel with during his reign were his own accomplishments. He didn't recognize that all the strength of Israel during his reign came from God. He had a moment of looking at the growth of Israel, all the fortifications of all the cities, the defeat of the Philistines, the tribute that he was receiving from the Ammonites, the fame and the power that had spread clear down to Egypt. And he thought to himself, I did this. I'm the reason all of this happened. He became overly prideful. Ultimately, he committed the same sin that Satan committed that's recorded in Isaiah 14. I will ascend. I will raise my throne. I will sit enthroned. I will make myself like the Most High. The book of Proverbs records this concept and the resulting consequence. Let's go to Proverbs 16.

Proverbs 16.

Proverbs 16. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 18.

Proverbs 16 and verse 18. Proverbs 16 and verse 18 reads, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall, better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud. Solomon realized it was important to keep a humble spirit, that it would be better to be poor but humble than to be rich and prideful because, again, that pride and that haughty spirit comes before destruction. This is true in individuals. It's true in societies. It's true in nations.

Frankly, the United States would do well to read this passage now and again.

Both Isaiah and Saul thought less of others and more of themselves as they became more and more powerful, as they obtained a greater and greater following, as they got more lands and more, you know, there was warnings given by God, don't multiply up horses. Don't chew all these things because this is where it goes. This is how this pride comes in. This wasn't something instantaneous.

This was something that built over time. As they became more powerful, it became less and less about God, less and less about the people that they ruled over and more and more about them.

You know, there are examples on the other side of the coin, though, as well. Let's take a look at the example of Gideon in Judges 6 and 7. Judges 6 and 7 will pick up this story of Gideon here, because Gideon is a good example of someone who had an opportunity and he turned it down.

Sort of. We'll talk about the sort of part at the end. He had an opportunity and he, for the most part, turned it down. You know, Gideon was called by God during a time, very interesting time in Israel's history. They'd been given into the hands of the Midianites, who along with the Amalekites would regularly raid the land of Israel, ruining crops, regularly killing Vise and others. In other words, I'm not your guy. I'm nothing. This is a job for someone who has great honor, a great and capable leader. What Gideon didn't realize is that God has a track record and he has a history of choosing those that are nothing in order to put to shame those that are mighty. He was exactly the guy that God was looking for to deliver Israel from their oppression. And deliver Israel he did. He begins by destroying the idols. The people were so entrenched in worshiping, not once, but twice, earning him a new name, which is really hard to pronounce, but I'm going to try it. Jerubail. I used to Jirubabababble. It's Jerubail. I've listened to it online several times. After his success is here, he gathers men with him to go and take on the combined armies of the Midianites and the Amalekites. Let's pick it up in Judges 7, verse 1. Judges 7, verse 1. We see the account of Gideon's valley at 300. It says, Then Jerubail, that is Gideon, and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the well of Herod, so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Morah in the valley. And the Lord said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against me, saying, My own hand has saved me. Now therefore proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.

I don't think Gideon imagined that 22,000 of the people, you know, were going to leave. I don't think I think he probably figured, Yeah, a few! Well, maybe 22,000 of them left, and 10,000 remained. Two-thirds of his army gone in one fell swoop. And here's Gideon, who's like, The Lord sent me, things are going to work out. Where is everyone going? I mean, he knew God was going to take care of it in some way, but I don't think he quite fully understood exactly how this was going to go at the beginning. Even with 10,000 remaining, God knew it was still too many, because he couldn't have Israel, which had a track record of doing this. Look what we did. No, no, no, no, no. He had to paint him into a corner. He didn't want him glorying in their own achievement. He wanted to ensure that they would give him the victory. So he had to stack the deck in such a way that there was no way that the Israelites could say that they had anything to do with it. He had to back them into a corner that only he could deliver them from. You know, I don't know about you guys, but it seems sometimes in our own life, God puts us into these places, a place where the message from God is decidedly sent, you can't get yourself out of this one. There is nothing that you can do to get yourself out. You're going to have to trust me. He keeps whittling away at Gideon's army until finally there's only 300 men remaining. This is impossible. If Gideon managed to achieve a victory with 300 men against a force of that size, no one could question God's involvement. We see how the story goes. God gave Gideon the victory with 300 men. They routed them. They chased them down.

They slayed the kings of Midian. That's the camp story. We always love Gideon because Gideon is such a great example of the camp story. But the more important part of our story is what happens next. Judges 8, verse 22. Judges 8 and verse 22. Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us, both you and your son and your grandson also, for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian. The men of Israel offered kingship to Gideon right there on the spot.

They offered him the most important and powerful position that any man could achieve within Israel at that time from a standpoint of militarily.

You imagine that offer. Not just, Will you be our ruler, but will your son rule over us? Will his son, will you establish a dynasty down the line today? They practically handed it to him.

You know, Gideon had tasted power. He was charismatic. He could have easily said yes and become king. Verse 23, we see his response. Verse 23, he tells him very specifically, I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you, but Lord shall rule over you.

I won't do it, neither will my son. Now God will rule over you as a people. He realized it wasn't about him. It wasn't about how much power he could obtain, how much he could take, what he could get out of it. Rather, it was more important about how he served God. He was the least of the clans, the least of his family, and he rose to become a great leader. And unlike Saul, he didn't let it go to his head too much. Too much. He asked the men later on in this passage, as we go along a little bit, he asked the men for a number of items of gold. He makes a gold nifod out of it. He becomes an idol in his house, and a stumbling block to his family ultimately becomes a stumbling block to Israel. His focus on God did slip. He stumbled. Eventually, on his death, Israel returns to their idolatry. Now additionally, despite turning down the opportunity to become a king, it seems that he still somewhat lived like a king. He did multiply wives, had concubines, and the kind of numbers that really were unheard of, unless you were a king. In fact, kind of the final piece of evidence that maybe he didn't remain as humble as he could have when he uttered those words in Judges 8 was that he named the son of one of his concubines Abimelech, which means my father, the king. So I don't know if he saw himself a little bit different. It's entirely speculative, but Gideon's good example may not even be quite perfect. When you do have power, when you have those types of situations, it seems to be easy to give in to pride. It does seem to be easy to give in to pride. However, our final example today is a man who can be very clearly placed in the giver category. And one of the few examples of people that we see scripturally who actually gave up power to become a servant of God. That man is Saul of Tarsus. He spent much of his early life persecuting those in the church. He was a high-ranking Pharisee, held a very significant amount of power, directly responsible for a number of deaths of the members of the early church, notably Stephen, who we know he supervised his stoning. He was the kind of guy whose reputation preceded him, almost humorously, in a way, after his conversion, as he would go and he would speak to the people. Isn't that Saul of Tarsus? I think we should run. This guy is no good. It was almost humorous in the accounts afterwards. He goes to knock on the door to try to get access to the apostles at the time. It's like, nope! The part of us is like, no, let him in. Let's see what he has to say. So it's kind of humorous. But when he was converted along the road to Damascus, when God finally revealed to Paul who he was to become and what his responsibility would be, when God really circumcised his heart, he didn't argue. He didn't argue. He submitted himself to God's authority, and he became an incredible servant of God. Now, that's kind of hard to argue when you're blind, I mean, to be fair. But let's turn over to the book of Philippians. We'll see kind of what Paul's thoughts were on this process and kind of his thoughts as to that transfer of power from before to now. We'll go to Philippians. Philippians 3, and we'll pick it up in verse 2.

Philippians 3 verse 2. So we want to think about how, what was Paul's mentality on this process, going from where he was, the power that he had. I mean, he's a guy who could walk into any house, just about anywhere, grab a believer, and haul him off and arrest him. I mean, he had the paperwork, essentially, to allow him to do that. An incredible amount of power prior to his conversion. I mean, he arguably had more power after his conversion, but, you know, from a worldly standpoint, he almost had a pretty incredible bit of authority that he had at that point in time. Philippians 3 verse 2. Philippians 3 verse 2 says, Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation. For we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Verse 4, Though I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so.

Goes on to list his accomplishments. Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews concerning the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gained to me? In other words, these things that were gained, these things that were important to me. These I counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed, I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

Verse 9, And be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God, by faith. Verse 10, That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. Paul looked at all of his achievements in his early life, in his previous life, all those things that he counted as gains, his zeal, the persecutions, Hebrew of the Hebrews, high-ranking Pharisee, faultless, based on his understanding of the law at the time. He counted them garbage. He counted them rubbish, as it says in here. Instead, he desired the knowledge of Christ. He desired the conversion that God had given him. And despite becoming a high-ranking apostle, I mean, arguably one of the more influential, at least that we still have recordings from at the time, he didn't want to go to his head. He refers to himself as the least among the apostles in 1 Corinthians 15. We won't turn there for sake of time. In fact, he goes on and he says that based on his past behavior in his persecution of the church, he didn't deserve to be called an apostle. He was humble. He recognized that when it came down to it, when it really boiled down to everything, he was a tool in the tool shed. That when it came down to it, he wasn't the gardener. He had a specific job, and that job was important, and it caused the work to get done in the garden and enabled the gardener to complete the harvest. But you know, at the end of the day, he's still just a tool in the hands of the gardener. He is not the gardener. Let's go over the book of Isaiah as we start to wrap things up today. The book of Isaiah, there's a neat passage in here that kind of refers to this concept. Fingers don't want to turn. They're tired. Isaiah 10.

Isaiah 10, and we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 15. But we'll see this principle scripturally, this idea of the tool and of the importance of the tool not being the wielder of the tool. This is from a section that really is referencing the Assyrians as a tool of God's wrath, that God had used them to conquer the northern half of the tribes of Israel back in the 720s, taking Israel captive, dispersing the ten tribes. But the Assyrians didn't recognize where that power came from. They did the same thing that other people had done in the past, the people we looked at before, like Saul and some of these others. They exalted themselves. We did this. Look what we did. Not recognizing that that power came from God and that they were simply a tool in God's hand. Isaiah 10, verse 15, says, "...shall the axe boast itself against him who chops with it, or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it." You know, think about that wood-cutting party. You know those chainsaws, those axes, all that stuff? They sat there and lay on the ground. Unless someone picked them up and unless someone used them, they were just laying there. They weren't doing anything.

"...shall the axe boast itself against him who chops with it, or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it, as if a rod could wield itself against those who lifted up, or as if a staff could lift up as if it were not wood." Unlike the Assyrians that are mentioned in this section, Paul recognized he was the instrument and that God wielded him. And as a result, the instrument didn't receive the glory. The wielder received the glory. In fact, along a very similar vein, he wrote what we see recorded in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 27. We'll go over there. It's the last passage for today. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 27.

1 Corinthians 1 and verse 27. These are Paul's own words, kind of reflecting on his own part and his own bit in this. 1 verse 27. old verse 29.

I don't know, a little bit like all this knowledge that we have and all this knowledge that they don't have, all these people out there in the world. Take a second. Realize that we're called for a very specific reason that's outlined right here in 1 Corinthians 1, 27-29.

That the weak and the beggarly things can put to shame the mighty. We have no barons of industry in here. When we try to put all of our money together, it's nowhere near the kind of money that Bill Gates wields or the kind of money that other people wield around the world.

We're here in the world's eyes and nothing. Yet God has opened His precious, precious truths to us, which is amazing. We've been chosen because of these reasons right here. We are the foolish. We are the base things. Saul lost sight of that. Zion, even Gideon, to an extent, lost sight of that. Paul, on the other hand, was obedient to his death. He gave his life for the truth of God, so the people of Galatia, of Ephesus, Rome, and Corinth.

Many more locations could come to the truth of Jesus Christ and the gospel of the kingdom of God. Brethren, we need to keep this concept in mind as we go about our Father's business, as we are out in society around us, or as we're talking with members within the church, or members of other church organizations. We need to keep in mind we have been given an incredible blessing of God's truth, but we've also been called to be tools in the same tool shed as the rest that God has revealed these truths to. We're no greater than any of our fellow tools. We're all designed, we're all chosen to do a very specific job.

God desires that we preach the gospel of the kingdom together, working hand in hand to bring the gospel message to the world, really, in unison. Now, we've also been given the opportunity to be ambassadors, and with that role, we've been commissioned to take the gospel to the world, and we're given a certain degree of authority because of that. What about us? Will we let it go to our head? Will we let it go to our head? Will we get prideful because of the knowledge that we have that the rest of the world doesn't have? And when we have interactions with other people in the world, will that pride creep in? In our discussions with other people, both in and out of the church, what is our goal in that interaction?

As we start discussing some of the more recent legislation that's gone on here in the United States, as we look at some of the different things that are going on right now with the ramp-up of the 2016 presidential election and the Syrian refugee crisis and a number of these other things, will we allow that pride to creep in to those interactions? Are we out to win the interaction, to show ourselves as knowledgeable, to show the other person how much we know? Is it for our own glory, or is it for God's glory? Are we putting ourselves on a pedestal, or are we attempting to win men to God?

Because if we burn the bridges in our interaction, if we burn the bridges in our interaction, we've not necessarily done God any favors. In fact, if we're not careful, we run the risk of tarnishing God's name in the process. Think, oh, one of those Christians, these guys over here. To much of the world, the gospel that we preach is foolishness. You know, the truth of God, the plan of God just in their minds is fable. It doesn't change the importance of our preaching it.

It doesn't change what we have to do. It doesn't change our commission. You know, we come into contact with other people who don't necessarily believe the way that we do. And we're preaching the gospel out in public, or we're living our life.

You know, we sometimes say that, you know, you may be the only Bible that someone ever reads. Your actions and what you do in your life may be the only Scripture that some people ever read.

If you think about it, when we preach the gospel out in public, you know, we think of this concept of preaching the gospel. And if we're only ever talking to people who agree with us, or we're only ever talking to individuals that are maybe disgruntled with their current religion, or are trying to figure out that God commissioned us to preach the gospel to the world, that means the guy up in Portland that's so pierced up that you can't hardly see his face through his lip ring and through all of his giant gauges and everything else, that means the guy tatted up on the street corner.

That's the world. That's the world. Do we recognize, again, that we might be the only Bible that some people read? And when we do talk to those people in the general public, in our interactions, well, we're out and about our Father's business. Consider the interaction. Will the interaction be give, or will it be take?